Matthew grunted out a laugh and said, "find and exit? I didn't have to find an exit. With the amount of firepower Wikket put in my jump drop pack I made my own. I just had to make sure I found you first."
"yeah, you know, your sister Wikket, the one who runs our outfit? Holy crap! you don't remember anything?" Matthew shouted as we ducked behind some trees, trying to avoid the gunfire.
You enter the cave and notice Katrina's hair ruffled and ears flatten against her head. "I don't like this." she growled and walked along the left side into the darkness. "Afraid you'll get wet?" Matthew laughed and pointed at the small stream flowing along the right side. You laugh and a bullet hits a stalagmite knocking it over into the water. Something dark flies over your head and exits the cave. "Run!" Katrina snapped and dragged Matt off into a sharp left turn.
I follow their foot steps, and we eventually hit a wall that has a door in it. We enter the foor finding the room, the room we're it all was changed."they let us get here," i said, tears goring in my eyes as the memory of the horrible operation flood back.
"You really should be more careful. People simply don't ride on the robo-guanas without practice. people have died from being thrown off. you're very lucky." she sighed as she...
Came towards me to feel my forehead. I grunted as I tried to sit up. "mom? Is that you?" "oh I think you hit you head a lot harder than I first had suspected. Calling me your mom, I don't remember giving birth to a human" she laughed as she dabbed my head with a cool compress. I tried to rise again when......
she held me down. i start to struggle to get away, but the harder i struggle the harder it becomes to move. People are starting to turn against me. What do they want from me?
"Where is it?" she hissed. "If you want to live any longer you'll tell us..." "Hey!" Matt called out grabbing her wrist and yanking her off you. "What the heck is wrong with you?" She snapped at him but turned and sat at the opposite wall not caring if her tail splashes against the water. Matt takes your hand and pulls you up. "Ignore her. She's just a stupid cat. You okay?" I look over to Katrina and say "Yeah but what was she talking about?". "You really don't remember your research with your father?" I shake my head and he begins to tell me...
"The Ether Sculptor, you two are the only ones who know what it does or how to build it." My eyes rolled back in my head as I tried to get rid of the head ache that plagued my conscience. "the night Atrophy attacked the lab your father went missing and you were taken to be interrogated." I felt regret as I looked into Matt's eyes. "I'm sorry Matt but I can barely remember the basic parts of my own past, I'm going to need time. It was probably a fail-safe that was meant to kick in incase either of us got caught. We need to find him, if he got out he has the key to my memory."
In reply to frosty5oh, #72: memory has a keyhole? lol jk
I try to remember the last thing before I was transformed. I was in a wood shop...carving...a bird?...everything starts to go dark...I reach out to grab for something..."Dad?" I look up and he pulled me to my feet. "Hey, kiddo" he said and tousled my hair. "Gotta be more careful." He took the bird-thing to put on the mantle but it fell in. I lauged and said "Now it reallys looks like a phoenix." I gasp and sit up "It was a phoenix!" I'm back at the cave floor. Matt frowns and rubs the back of his head...
"Well try to think of something, I'm going to the cave entrance to check on the situation" James sighed as he stood up. I stand up and start to pace the cave, making little splashing sounds in the puddles on the ground as I walk through them. the word phoenix kept echoing in the back of my head, but I couldn't recall what it was or its significance to my memory. Ether Sculptor, phoenix, anthromorphs, Atrophy, what was the connection. "is the Ether Sculptor something to get rid of us anthros?" Katrina hissed and she watched me pace. "no, no I don't think so, my father had married an anthro and loved her, so he wouldn't waste time with such a barbaric idea. But why......" Thoughts of a book case in my fathers study flashed in my head. "James, we need to go to my fathers house, I think I have a clue"
"One problem" Katrina snapped. You lost your memory. She rushed over and grabbed my neck. Lifting my off the ground she yelled "Do you think I'm stupid! First, you don't even know who you are and then suddenly you say 'Oh, let's go to daddy's' " She let go and I slumped to the floor. Turning to Matt, she said "Do you really think we can trust her? Are you that stupid? It's a trap!"
Matt hangs his head for a moment..."I...I don't know..." He looked up and his eyes hardened a little. "Tie her up. If it is a trap then she can be our bargaining tool."
The morning fog hung thick in the air as we exited the cave. The sun hadn't risen yet and there was very little light. I struggled against my bonds a little garnering me a distasteful glare from Katrina. "why don't you trust me?" I asked beggingly. Matt didn't look towards me, just kept walking slowly, carefully. The trees at the mouth of the cave were easy to maneuver, the deeper we went the harder it became to navigate. There were more thickets entwining between what would be open space and they not been there. Bigger roots jutting out of the ground. I closed my eyes for a moment. "Hey" A voice trails off in my mind. "Chrissy? Hey Chris, quit fooling around I know your awake" My eyes opened still groggy from being closed. This wasn't the forest, the silhouette was feminine but not feline, I rubbed my eyes as she brushed my bangs out of my face. "you okay kid?"
I hesitate to answer. Who could this person be, and what happened to the forest? Where did Matt and Katrina go, I could have sworn that I was just with them. Did I pass out again? I see a hand reach out from the silhouette, cautiously I reach out to grab it. Still trying to figure out who it is I hear, "Kid, what is wrong with you! No one in their right mind would wander around this place by themselves...let alone at this time of the night".
Hey guys! So I decided to type the whole story so far into one word document (I was having trouble remembering all of what happened). We have 4,108 words! are you shocked xP Anyways, if you would like the document let me know, I can email it to you
"Wikket? Is that you?" My voice starting myself. "Who else would I be kid? You were out for quite a long time." "What happened to the forest? Where is Matt? Where are we?" I tried to mutter more but Wikket put her finger up to my lips and gently shushed me."I don't know how you did it but you jumped without a machine, right now your back in your original body, Matt should be with the anthro and your other body on their way to this base. It shouldn't take them more than a day and a half to get here. Now Chrissy, you are going to explain to me how you jumped with out the machine." I shook off the stiffness in my neck as I stood. "I'm sorry Wikk but I can't remember, I think when I woke up in the other body my memories were blocked somehow." Wikket walks over to a dimly lit table and sits with her feet up on the table and starts to eat some bread. "Wheres dad?" she said with her mouth half full of food.
Dad....was that the man that we encountered at the building with the black eyes? It couldn't be. But he did in fact know my name. And I felt like he would have told me more if the director had not taken him out. "Wikket", I say softly, "what did Dad look like?" She looks at me with heavy eyes, "Man jumping without a machine sure took more out of you than I would have ever thought." Wikket starts rustling through some papers, "I'm sure we have a picture of him around here somewhere."
She hands me an intelligence photo of the last body he was seen using. "Thats him, the man a the facility" I said, stunned. "Jump records we obtained showed that dad made a jump shortly after his approximated time of meeting you in the facility, we had hoped we could locate the jump tail but it just vanished. Thats when beans-for-brains decided to use the unfinished teleporter to jump in with all the crap he could pillage from MY stash to save you." She slammed the heel of her boot on the table and stared in discontent at her weapons cache, which from the looks of it wasn't missing much. "oh Matt, always the short fuse....." I whispered.
I try to sort through some of the newly collected data in my brain that was too full. Why would dad jump right after he found me…It took enough energy to find me, and then when he does *poof* gone. I turn to Wikket, “Sis, it looks like we still have most of your weapons stash, and we have a decent number of people on our side…why not try to go after dad. We are his kids, there must be some link between us that we can figure out where he would go. Or more realistically, he must have left us a clue. He was always good at that, ever since we were little”.
Wikket stood up and walked over to her armory area. She picked up a rifle and began check the moving parts of the rifle. This was one of the things she did often when deep in thought. Her love for firearms started when we were young. Our father bought us our first pistols. She took to it like a fish to water. Me on the other hand never acquired the taste for guns. I practiced enough to stay proficient in my marksmanship. Come to think about it we spent a lot of time in those fields didn't we. "Hey Wikket, you remember that place dad used to take us to practice shooting?"
A slight grin came across her face as I brought that up, and she looked down at the shining gun. “Do I remember it…”, she said in a slightly sarcastic tone, “that is my favorite place in the world, I still go over there to practice my shooting when I have the spare time. Although lately I haven’t gotten over there as much as I would like too.” She put the gun on the table and walked over to look at the rest of her stock in the armory, “but why focus on the past and what was, we need to figure out the now…” I could sense that all of this talk of our childhood and past was something that was getting to her, she never was the sentimental type.
"Do you remember the stories he used to tell us there? About how a long time ago the ancients believed that everything was connected somehow?" Wikket paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling for a bit then back at the gun in her hands. "I do remember the stories somewhat, but what does ancient fairy tales have to do with finding him?" she said. I squeezed my forehead with my thumb and forefinger. "There's something in them, a clue to where he might be, but what is it?" Wikket looked at me.
